What are the elements of the tobacco endgame?

The available literature on tobacco endgames tends to be limited to discussing means, targets and difficulties. This article offers additional ideas on the key elements of endgame strategies and the circumstances in which these are likely to be adopted and implemented. We suggest such strategies will include explicit plans, will define the nature of `the end of tobacco use/sale' and have target dates within 20 years. The likely circumstances for endgame strategy development include low (probably under 15% adult smoking) prevalence and/or rapid prevalence reductions, wide support and strong political leadership. Even with some or all these circumstances, opposition from business, internal government forces and international factors may influence results.     

What do consumers know about the economy?

This research investigates Minimal Economic Knowledge (MEK) of consumers in Germany—that is, basic economic knowledge needed for understanding and successfully participating in the economy. First we develop a scale for measuring MEK in four economic domains: finance, labour economics, consumption, and public economics, testing for three kinds of knowledge within each domain, namely facts, concepts, and causal relationships. Second, we conduct an empirical study to test MEK level and influence of demographic drivers in a representative sample of German adult consumers (N = 1,314), with a mean result of only 59.4 points (of 100), indicating a considerable lack of even minimal economic knowledge. And third, using a subsample, we study factors that result in differences in the level of MEK showing among others that the choice of “sensationalist” versus “serious” news sources, both on television and in newspapers, is associated with a loss of about 10 MEK points, while, surprisingly, participating in an economics course did not enhance minimal economic knowledge. The article closes with a discussion of implications for consumer policy-making.     

What is the source of ochratoxin A in wine?

During a microvinification trial using natural mouldy grapes from a research experimental vineyard, ochratoxin A (OTA) contaminated white wine was obtained. Potential OTA-producing mycobiota of grape samples used in this microvinification process was assessed. Only Aspergillus carbonarius isolates were detected as producers of OTA. Our report is a strong evidence of the contribution of A. carbonarius in the OTA contamination in wine.     

What separates the winners from the losers in new food product development?

The low rate of innovation and high rate of failure of new food products is a cause for concern. Whilst a wide range of product development process factors are known to influence product success and failure, these predictors are based almost exclusively upon investigations into ‘industrial’ rather than food products. In this paper, an analysis of existing models of product development is carried out, a recently developed model for reduced fat food product development is described and implications for best practice in food product development discussed. Market and consumer knowledge and retailer involvement are key success factors in food product development.     

What can development policy learn from the history of development?

This article reports the proceedings of a workshop held on 3 June 2010, that aimed to establish a dialogue between historians of agriculture and academics working in development studies. Including papers by historians from the Netherlands, Canada and the UK, and a commentary from the development anthropologist, Paul Richards, the workshop identified a number of themes for further investigation, and confirmed the value of continuing dialogue between historians and policy academics.     

Tear evaporation rates: What does the literature tell us?

Purpose

A previous literature review reported tear evaporation rates (TERs) from studies conducted on rabbits and humans between 1941 and 2003. Closer examination of the presented data revealed inaccuracies in the reporting of some values. This paper presents updated tables of TERs using values from the original papers cited in the review, in addition to incorporating new studies published between 2003 and 2016.

Toxic or beneficial? What is the role of food-relevant selenium species selenoneine?

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element that is ubiquitously present in the environment in small concentrations. Essential functions of Se in the human body are manifested through the wide range of proteins, containing selenocysteine as their active center. Such proteins are called selenoproteins which are found in multiple physiological processes like antioxidative defense and the regulation of thyroid hormone functions. Therefore, Se deficiency is known to cause a broad spectrum of physiological impairments, especially in endemic regions with low Se content. Nevertheless, being an essential trace element, Se could exhibit toxic effects, if its intake exceeds tolerable levels. Accordingly, this range between deficiency and overexposure represents optimal Se supply. However, this range was found to be narrower than for any other essential trace element. Together with significantly varying Se concentrations in soil and the presence of specific bioaccumulation factors, this represents a noticeable difficulty in the assessment of Se epidemiological status. While Se is acting in the body through multiple selenoproteins, its intake occurs mainly in form of small organic or inorganic molecular mass species. Thus, Se exposure not only depends on daily intake but also on the respective chemical form, in which it is present. The essential functions of selenium have been known for a long time and its primary forms in different food sources have been described. Nevertheless, analytical capabilities for a comprehensive investigation of Se species and their derivatives have been introduced only in the last decades. A new Se compound was identified in 2010 in the blood and tissues of bluefin tuna. It was called selenoneine (SeN) since it is an isologue of naturally occurring antioxidant ergothioneine (ET), where Se replaces sulfur. In the following years, SeN was identified in a number of edible fish species and attracted attention as a new dietary Se source and potentially strong antioxidant. Studies in populations whose diet largely relies on fish revealed that SeN represents the main non-protein bound Se pool in their blood. First studies, conducted with enriched fish extracts, already demonstrated the high antioxidative potential of SeN and its possible function in the detoxification of methylmercury in fish. Cell culture studies demonstrated, that SeN can utilize the same transporter as ergothioneine, and SeN metabolite was found in human urine. Until recently, studies on SeN properties were severely limited due to the lack of ways to obtain the pure compound. As a predisposition to this work was firstly a successful approach to SeN synthesis in the University of Graz, utilizing genetically modified yeasts. In the current study, by use of HepG2 liver carcinoma cells, it was demonstrated, that SeN does not cause toxic effects up to 100 M concentration in hepatocytes. Uptake experiments showed that SeN is not bioavailable to the used liver cells. In the next part a blood-brain barrier (BBB) model, based on capillary endothelial cells from the porcine brain, was used to describe the possible transfer of SeN into the central nervous system (CNS). The assessment of toxicity markers in these endothelial cells and monitoring of barrier conditions during transfer experiments demonstrated the absence of toxic effects from SeN on the BBB endothelium up to 100 M concentration. Transfer data for SeN showed slow but substantial transfer. A statistically significant increase was observed after 48 hours following SeN incubation from the blood-facing side of the barrier. However, an increase in Se content was clearly visible already after 6 hours of incubation with 1 M of SeN. While the transfer rate of SeN after application of 0.1 M dose was very close to that for 1 M, incubation with 10 M of SeN resulted in a significantly decreased transfer rate. Double-sided application of SeN caused no side-specific transfer of SeN, thus suggesting a passive diffusion mechanism of SeN across the BBB. This data is in accordance with animal studies, where ET accumulation was observed in the rat brain, even though rat BBB does not have the primary ET transporter OCTN1. Investigation of capillary endothelial cell monolayers after incubation with SeN and reference selenium compounds showed no significant increase of intracellular selenium concentration. Speciesspecific Se measurements in medium samples from apical and basolateral compartments, as good as in cell lysates, showed no SeN metabolization. Therefore, it can be concluded that SeN may reach the brain without significant transformation. As the third part of this work, the assessment of SeN antioxidant properties was performed in Caco-2 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. Previous studies demonstrated that the intestinal epithelium is able to actively transport SeN from the intestinal lumen to the blood side and accumulate SeN. Further investigation within current work showed a much higher antioxidant potential of SeN compared to ET. The radical scavenging activity after incubation with SeN was close to the one observed for selenite and selenomethionine. However, the SeN effect on the viability of intestinal cells under oxidative conditions was close to the one caused by ET. To answer the question if SeN is able to be used as a dietary Se source and induce the activity of selenoproteins, the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and the secretion of selenoprotein P (SelenoP) were measured in Caco-2 cells, additionally. As expected, reference selenium compounds selenite and selenomethionine caused efficient induction of GPx activity. In contrast to those SeN had no effect on GPx activity. To examine the possibility of SeN being embedded into the selenoproteome, SelenoP was measured in a culture medium. Even though Caco-2 cells effectively take up SeN in quantities much higher than selenite or selenomethionine, no secretion of SelenoP was observed after SeN incubation. Summarizing, we can conclude that SeN can hardly serve as a Se source for selenoprotein synthesis. However, SeN exhibit strong antioxidative properties, which appear when sulfur in ET is exchanged by Se. Therefore, SeN is of particular interest for research not as part of Se metabolism, but important endemic dietary antioxidant.     

What are meters measuring?

There is increasing pressure on manufacturers of cosmetic products to provide data to support claims. Data are available from many sources including historical (published literature), laboratory data, cell culture experiments and human studies. Undoubtedly, human studies are the most reliable, and there are a wide range of tests available. Many meters have been developed for measuring different aspects of skin physiology but an understanding of these devices is essential, otherwise the data generated is of little value. There is some confusion as to what exactly some meters measure, an example of which is transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and water content (hydration) of the stratum corneum. Measurement of TEWL is used mainly to support claims that a product may, in the short or long term, improve or repair the barrier function of skin. It is not an indicator of hydration of the stratum corneum. One way to measure hydration is to look for the changes in electrical properties of the stratum corneum that the increased water content produces, i.e. measure capacitance or conductance. It is important that we do not loose sight of the fact that meters may measure something that is imperceptible to the consumer or has no meaning to them. Reliance only on devices that give numbers may lead to problems. An example of a study where three facial cosmetic products were subjected to perceptual tests and to a standard volunteer test for moisturization will be discussed. The relationship between any measured parameter, and what it means to the consumer, needs to be understood. A moisturization claim may be technically supported by a study using a device such as the Corneometer. However, a 20% increase in water content almost certainly does not represent a 20% better moisturization as far as the consumer is concerned. The way forward is to relate the two approaches to product testing during product development. Hopefully, this will allow the product development process to be more systematic.     

What are the potential strategies to achieve potentially more healthful meat products?

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the consumption of meat and processed meat, and their relationship with a healthy diet. This review provides an overview of the potential strategies, which can be used to provide the implications for producing healthy, wholesome and consistently high-quality meat products. Genetic selection, nutrition and feeding management, and gene manipulation techniques have been used as the main strategies to induce beneficial changes in meat and meat composition. Besides, the incorporation of ingredients that play a technological role and are potentially health-enhancing, such as fibre, fat substitutes, natural antioxidants and the reduction of sodium and nitrites, has a high potential in the development of healthier meat products. In this review, we have observed that many strategies have been successfully used to obtain products with low fat, reduced sodium and nitrite content, low cholesterol and absence of synthetic antioxidants. Another point to be highlighted is that some of these strategies also allow obtaining products with positive health effects that can be potential alternatives to improve consumer acceptance.     

What is the true supply of amino acids for a dairy cow?

Improving the prediction of milk protein yield relies on knowledge of both protein supply and requirement. Definition of protein/amino acid supply in ruminants is a challenging task, due to feedstuff variety and variability and to the remodeling of nutrient intake by the rumen microflora. The questions arise, therefore, how and where should we measure the real supply of AA in the dairy cow? This review will follow the downstream flow of AA from duodenum to peripheral tissue delivery, with a glance at the efficiency of transfer into milk protein. Duodenal AA flow comprises rumen undegradable feed, microbial protein, and endogenous secretions. Most attention has been directed toward definition of the first two contributions but the latter fraction can represent as much as 20% of duodenal flow. More information is needed on what factors affect its magnitude and overall impact. Once digested, AA are absorbed into the portal vein. The ratio of portal absorption to small intestinal apparent digestion varies among essential AA, from 0.43 (threonine) to 0.76 (phenylalanine), due to the contributions of preduodenal endogenous secretions to the digestive flow, non-reabsorption of endogenous secretions and gut oxidation of AA. Few data are available on these phenomena in dairy cows but the evidence indicates that they alter the profile of AA available for anabolic purposes. Recent comparisons of estimated duodenal flux and measured portal flux have prompted a revisit of the NRC (2001) approach to estimate AA flows at the duodenum. Changes to the model are proposed that yield predictions that better fit the current knowledge of AA metabolism across the gut. After absorption, AA flow first to the liver where substantial and differential net removal occurs, varying from zero for the branched-chain AA to 50% of portal absorption for phenylalanine. This process alters the pattern of net supply to the mammary gland. Overall, intermediary metabolism of AA between the duodenum and the mammary gland biologically explains the decreased efficiency of the transfer of absorbed AA into milk protein as maximal yield is approached. Therefore, variable, rather than fixed, factors for transfer efficiencies must be incorporated into future predictive models.